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PM SAYS GOVT TO PUSH SRA FOR MORE CASH

The Prime Minister Dr Sibusiso Dlamini said government will work around ensuring that revenue collected by the Swaziland Revenue Authority (SRA) improves.

Dlamini said he had faith that in 2018 this statement will not to be misquoted like it was in 2017 by a certain media house he did not mention by name.

The PM was making his remarks at the 2018 cabinet retreat that was held at the Pigg’s Peak Hotel yesterday.

Dlamini said that even though this was the final year of the current government administration, government had to operate like a successful business that provides excellent service delivery, maximises revenue streams, reduces costs and pays all contractual debts. “As we enter the final stretch in the current administration, I expect the 2018 cabinet to dig deep and behave like an athlete who can see the finish line in front of him or her, we are anxious to see the suppliers of goods and services to government receive their fair payment for services on time, also our reliance on the inconsistant and unpredictable revenue received from the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) makes optimal resource maximisation very difficult to control, so as Swaziland we have to reduce our reliance on that sort of revenue,” he said.

One technique available to government to combat reliance on SACU revenue is to build up a reserve from gains received from SACU in order to cover shocks when the payout drops.

The PM said a more controllable but challenging measure is to increase domestic revenue raised by the Swaziland Revenue Authority (SRA).

“In this regard I would like to emphasise that last year I was unfortunately misquoted, so what I mean is government must broaden tax compliance across the population for those whose income is above the tax threshold, this is a priority instead of taking the easy way out of broadening the tax base, also we will have to discuss the effect of the recent SRA strike,’’ said the head of government.